Category: Viewers

CtrlAltStudio 1.2.1: Xbox 360 Controller support

Posted on by Inara Pey

CAS-logo Update, May 25th: Dave has released an update to the Windows version of CtrlAltStudio 1.2.1 to correct some issues with the controller not being recognised by the viewer. The updated version is 1.2.1.41169, available from the same CtrlAltStudio blog post as linked to in this article.

On Monday May 12th, Dave Rowe (Strachan Ofarrel in SL) released CtrlAltStudio version 1.2.1.41169 (Win) and 1.2.1.41167 (Mac). This brings with it a number of fixes and updates, and sees CtrlAltStudio maintain parity with the Firestorm 4.6.5, which appeared on Sunday May 11th. Most intriguingly, it includes support for the Xbox 360 controller, which appears to be aimed at reducing reliance on the keyboard for a range of tasks when wearing an Oculus Rift headset (although it is by no means constrained to just that use).

The release is for both Windows and Mac, and it is strongly recommended that a clean install is performed.

Xbox 360 Controller Support

CtrlAltStudio 1.2.1401169/67 allows you to use the Xbox 360 Controller to walk, fly, use flycam, orbit about points in 3rd person view, click on objects and use context menus with objects. It works in 3rd person view and Mouselook and can be used with normal, stereoscopic 3D, and Oculus Rift display output. However, please note that so far, this has only been tested on a Windows system.

By default, the controls are configured as follows:

Xbox 360 Controller buttons
Back: Toggle flycam on/off
Start: Toggle Left / Right Sticks between avatar & cursor movement
Avatar Movement Cursor Movement
Left Stick: Move forward / back / left / right Cursor up / down / left / right
Right  Stick: Change camera pitch and roll Zoom view
Left + Right Stick Fly down / up No Action
Back + Start: Toggle Rift or 3D stereoscopic 3D on/off
Left Stick click: Jump up / stop flying
Right Stick click: Toggle 1st person view
Left / Right Bumpers: Left or right mouse click (configurable by user)
Y button: Escape
X button: Control
B button: Shift
A button: Alt
D-pad: Not used

Once connected to your computer, the Xbox 360 Controller should be calibrated (e.g. by using the device’s properties provided via Windows’ Devices and Printers folder). It can then be enabled for use with SL by launching CtrlAltStudio 1.2.1 and enabling the controller via Preferences > Move & View > Movement > Enable Joystick and then using the Joystick Configuration button to configure it for SL.

Enable the Xbox 360 Controller and configure it as you would any joystick controller, via the Joystick Configuration options
Enable the Xbox 360 Controller and configure it as you would any joystick controller, via the Joystick Configuration options

Note that the settings displayed in the Joystick Configuration panel are not those supplied by LL; they have been adjusted to provide defaults specific to the Xbox 360 Controller.

Other Notable Updates

As well as the Xbox 360 support and parity with Firestorm 4.6.5 (reviewed here), this release of CtrlAltStudio also includes the following (again, please refer to the release notes for a full list of updates & any specific credits for them):

  • Fixed crashing with stereoscopic 3D display over HDMI when Set Output to 120Hz is checked
  • Fixed start-up in full screen overriding current display resolution so that can reliably use 720p stereoscopic 3D on a 1080p display
  • Fixed problems dragging physical objects
  • “Set output to 120Hz” display option only enabled on Windows, as it’s not used on other operating systems
  • Changed the minimum draw distance from 32m to 8m
  • Exiting flycam while in Riftlook  no longer causes the camera to start moving to the right
  • Improved the tool tips in the Rift display preferences
  • Avatar jumping at less than maximum walk speeds fixed.

I don’t actually have an Xbox system (360 or otherwise), so I cannot say how the controller works. However, Dave notes that BillyBob Snowpaw did a considerable amount of testing, so those with a controller shouldn’t experience anything untoward happening.

With Linden Lab continuing to work on the Oculus Rift integration. Given the problems inherent with using that HMD with a keyboard, it’s good to see that other options are being looked at by TPVs. while the Xbox Controller won’t help with typing, it would certainly appear to make avatar / camera / cursor movement a lot easier when used in combination with an HMD, and even with stereoscopic glasses.

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 19

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday May 11th, 2014

This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information

Official LL Viewers

  • Current viewer release: update to version 3.7.7.289461 (formerly the Interest list RC – improvements to how the viewer and server work together to know what scene objects to draw) on May 6th (download page, release notes)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
  • Project viewers:
    • No Updates

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • Catznip updated to version R9 on May 9th – core updates: CHUI integration, materials processing support, initial overhaul of Preferences floater; improved camera / movement floaters; profile display updates;  bug fixes;  and more  (release notes) – review here
  • Firestorm updated to version 4.6.5.40833 on May 11th – core updates: Vivox 4.6.x; FmodEx updates & fixes; Fitted Mesh fixes; Mac Cocoa fixes; OpenSim updates; building & scripting updates; communications updates and fixes; bug fixes; and more   (release notes) – review here

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated on May 10th, as follows: Stable: version 1.26.12.0; Legacy: version 1.26.8.58 – core updates: please refer to the release notes (downloads)

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Lumiya updated to version 2.6.0 on May 9th – core updates: Fitted Mesh support; Request Teleport; Support for selecting avatars in 3D by touch; significant 3D performance improvements; reduced memory footprint; improved bandwidth usage  (release notes) – review here

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Firestorm 4.6.5: steady as she goes

Posted on by Inara Pey

firestorm-logoOn Sunday May 11th, the Firestorm team released Firestorm 4.6.5.40833. Given this release comes just two months after the 4.6.1 release, it does not have a huge raft of new shiny. What it does offer is a nice package of new features and updates, together with a fair few bug fixes from both the Lab and the Firestorm team.

As always, the complete list of changes, together with attributions, can be found in the release notes, and I refer readers to that document for specifics on all contributors, FIRE JIRA links, etc. The following is intended as an overview of some of the more major / interesting changes, updates and  fixes to be found in the release.

The Before We Begin Notes

  • Downloading – a reminder: while the Firestorm download server performed perfectly for the 4.6.1 release, please remember it is the only server handling downloads. So in the unlikely event you encounter delays or a slow download, please be patient / consider re-trying a little later
  • Version blocking: Jessica informs me that there are no plans to block any older Firestorm versions following this release
  • Installation: as always, a completely clean install of the viewer is recommended.

Lab Updates

This release sees Firestorm reach parity with LL’s 3.7.4 code-base, and add a number of fixes and updates from the Lab, including (but not limited to):

  • Vivox 4.6.x updates
  • Advanced Lighting Model can no longer be enabled for Mac OSX 10.6.8 as Mac OSX 10.6.8 is no longer supported by Linden lab (The ability to enable ALM on 10.6.8 was removed because it caused rendering glitches when enabled)
  • Fix for huge amounts of memory being used & viewer crashing when opening large chat histories from the conversation log
  • Fix for BUG-5537, introduced as a result of changes made to the avatar_lad.xml for Fitted Mesh. These changes caused a non-rigged mesh attachment object worn on the chest attachment point shape to look fine in the wearer’s view whereas anyone else it would appear as if the wearer’s chest was showing through the clothing item
  • Fix for crash when editing certain rigged meshes at high altitude
  • Fix for crash when uploading corrupt .DAE file (BUG-4961)
  • Fix for BUG-997,terrain texture changes caused by changing texture elevation ranges or terraforming can not be seen until after relog or teleporting out and back to the region
  • Fix for a suspected thread race crasher in the FmodEx library.

A Note on Interest List Updates

The recent LL viewer-side interest list updates are not a part of the Firestorm 4.6.5 release. As noted elsewhere in this blog, the interest list code is a non-trivial merge due to the extent of changes included alongside of the core interest list updates. It’ll therefore take a little longer for this work to appear in Firestorm.

Building and Scripting Updates

Firestorm 4.6.5 see the Build options in Preferences revised, with two Build sub-tabs (Build 1 and Build 2) under Preferences > Firestorm.

The revised Build-1 sub-tab in Preferences > Firestorm
The revised Build-1 sub-tab in Preferences > Firestorm

Build 1 (above) contains the options for setting defaults for all newly created prims (size, settings, texture, permissions and pivot point) and the LSL pre-processor options.

The Build 2 sub-tab contains the six check-boxes (Save Scripts Edited from Inventory to Mono, Save Textures from Inventory to Disk as PNG Instead of TGA by Default, etc, which had been in the previous Build sub-tab). It also contains four new options.

The new Build 2 sub-tab in Preferences > Firestorm
The new Build 2 sub-tab in Preferences > Firestorm

The new options are:

  • Limit select distance (meters) – disallows selection of objects beyond the specified selection distance from your avatar
  • Limit drag distance (meters) – when enabled, this limits the translation distance of objects in a single operation of the translate tool (metres from start point)
  • Constrain rotations to multiples of X degrees, when not using ‘snap to grid’ – all rotations via the rotation tool are constrained to multiples of this unit (degrees)
  • Preview animations on own avatar during upload – when enabled, you can preview animations during the upload process on your own avatar instead of on the avatar dummy in the upload window.

Firestorm 4.6.5 also includes the following build related items:

  • An option to prevent avatar from turning to selected object when editing (Preferences > Move & View > Firestorm > Turn Avatar Towards a Selected Object)
  •  A fix so that when previewing an animation for uploading it (in paused mode), moving the track of the slider will now correctly change the displayed frame of the animation.

Communications Updates

There are a number of new options for communications with this release, together with a number of fixes. The new features include:

voice-warn
The new multiple voice instances option should enable you to run voice on multiple viewer instances on the same computer & without generating warnings like this
  • An option to allow voice to connect in multiple viewer instances simultaneously (Preferences > Sound and Media > Voice Settings), allowing you to run voice on multiple viewer instances, and without seeing the connection warning pop-up message (shown right)
  • An option to hear voice equally from everyone, rather than being dependent upon either avatar position or camera placement. This is a useful addition for meetings, etc., where attendees may be located at difference distances from your avatar / camera position, thus impacting voice quality when they are speaking.
The new voice options in Preferences > Sound and Media > Voice Settings
The new voice options in Preferences > Sound and Media > Voice Settings
  • A new option has been added to enable the full profile of an avatar to be opened when clicking on an inspect SLurl (Preferences > Firestorm > General > Open Avatar Profile Directly When Clicking on its Name).

Continue reading “Firestorm 4.6.5: steady as she goes” →

Catznip R9: the cat gets the cream

Posted on by Inara Pey

catznip logoCatznip released version R9 of their popular v3 viewer on Friday May 9th, and marks their biggest single update so far. As the team move towards a shorter, faster release cycle, it is likely to be the last of the really big updates we see coming out of the door from the team. In the future, things are liable to appear in smaller and more focused releases.

The complete list of changes can be found in the release notes, and I refer readers to that document for a full list of updates and changes, and any necessary specifics on code contributed to the viewer (if applicable).

The following is intended as an overview of some of what I feel are the more major / interesting / visible changes to be found in the release.

Chat  and CHUI

R9 sees Catznip get the best of CHUI and extras from the Catznip team that should help to present users with a chat  / IM conversations.

Catznip R9 chat takes the best of CHUI and adds Catznip's own tweaks, and the return of popular elements
Catznip R9 chat takes the best of CHUI and adds Catznip’s own tweaks, and the return of popular elements

One of the more noticeable elements is the ability to range tabs either vertically or horizontally. Given that many people do appreciate chiclets, considerable effort has been put into restoring the chiclets following the inclusion of the CHUI code.

Given the extent of the updates resulting from the CHUI merge and the team’s efforts to present a flexible, friend chat UI, Preferences > Chat has been extensively updated.

Preferences > Chat has been revised with expanded options for managing all aspects of chat and IMs
Preferences > Chat has been revised with expanded options for managing all aspects of chat and IMs

These changes are apparent from the moment Preferences > Chat is opened, with six new sub-tabs appearing in the panel. Three of these – Translation, Auto-Replace and Spell Checking – replace the button which access these options in earlier releases. The remaining three tabs – Chat, IM & Groups and Logging – are entirely new to this release, and all include options for configuring chat and IM notifications, behaviour, appearance, and more (some of which have been inherited from the old Preferences > Catznip > Chat sub-tab, which has been removed from R9, being surplus to requirements).

The IM & Groups sub-tab helps with configuring chat / IM behaviour, appearance, etc.
The IM & Groups sub-tab helps with configuring chat / IM behaviour, appearance, etc.

Additionally, the spelling checker has been updated to support German, French, Italian and Polish.

Building Updates

Perhaps the most obvious change to Catznip R9 is the arrival of Materials Processing. However, there are other updates as well, including:

  • Windows only:
    • Drag-and-drop textures directly onto a prim face using local textures as the backing store
    • Drag-and-drop uploading of textures
  • Added a “Selection Options” pop-out to thebuildfloater,  grouping all selection related viewer options and including:
    • Select Only Copyable Objects (also added to Build menu > Options)
    • Option to prevent turning towards a newly selected object
  • Option to prevent the avatar’s arm from pointing at a newly selected object
  • Added copy/paste of the different types of texture parameters with three possible scenarios (always on a single object):
    1. Copy all texture faces (which may or may not be identical) => pastes the texture data on matching selected faces
    2. Copy one texture face => pastes the texture data on all selected faces
    3. Copy several texture faces => pastes the texture data on matching selected faces
  • Added pipette for the different types of texture parameters.
    • The Build floater with Selections Options pop-out (l) and Materials (r)
    The Build floater with Selections Options pop-out (l) and Materials (r)

    Camera and Movement Floaters

    The updated Camera and Movement floaters
    The updated Camera and Movement floaters

    Both the Camera and Movement floaters have been refined so they are transparent, rather than opaque, and are more compact. The Camera floater also has a revised layout.

    A slider in Preferences > Colors allows you to adjust the level of transparency / opacity of both floaters.

    Inventory Updates

    This release sees a number of inventory related updates and changes, including:

    • A significant speed improvements when filtering inventory
    • Open in Inventory check box added to the Buy Contents floater + UI layout cleanup
    • Texture tooltip added for inventory items
    • Copy Outfit List to Clipboard is now available when right-clicking any outfit folders in your inventory
    • Option to clear the current inventory filter rather than create a new inventory floater when the shown item is currently filtered
    • Inventory will always show the “Received Items” folder if the inventory’s panel contents are filtered (with a non-default filter)
    • Empty system folders no longer hidden by default (Advanced > Debug setting DebugHideEmptySystemFolders set to FALSE)
    • New option to control how offered inventory is handled while marked as Do not Disturb
      • Pop up a chiclet as normal (default)
      • Auto-accept the offer
      • Auto-decline the offer.

    Notecards / Scripts / Text editors

    These see the following features added to the R9 release:

    • Recovery support for unsaved notecards (embedded items are not preserved)
    • Texture tool tips for embedded notecard items
    • Use the current selection (text, etc.) as the default search string
    • Highlighting of occurrences in the target editor when using the Search/Replace floater
    • New keyboard shortcuts to the script editor menu
      • F1 opens the LSL reference
      • Shift+F1 opens keyboard help
      • Ctrl+G opens the “Go to line” floater.

    In addition, the following behaviours have been revised:

    • When you Go To a line in a script editor, at least three lines above/below the target line will now be visible
    • Case-insensitive search is now enabled by default for notecards, scripts and text editors.

    Preferences

    As well as the updates to the Chat tab, this release sees a number of other updates in Catznip’s Preferences which form a part of ongoing work to overhaul Preferences.

    The Sound and Media tab has been completely overhauled, with new sub-tabs for volume controls and streaming, Sound Alerts, and Voice Chat.

    The Sound Alerts sub-tab panel on the revised Sound and Media tab in Preferences
    The Sound Alerts sub-tab panel on the revised Sound and Media tab in Preferences

    Continue reading “Catznip R9: the cat gets the cream” →

    Lumiya 2.6.0: fine-tuning the engine for F1 performance

    Posted on by Inara Pey

    lumiya-logoUpdate May 13th: Lumiya 2.6.1 is now available. This includes a fix to prevent the client crashing when rendering megaprims, improved mesh download speeds and reduced lage when walking.

    Alina Lyvette announced the arrival of the latest release of Lumiya on Friday May 9th.

    Version 2.6.0 marks the arrival of support for Fitted Mesh and some pretty impressive under-the-hood changes which greatly enhance Lumiya’s performance in the areas of memory use, bandwidth utilisation and 3D rendering – and I found the improvements really are noticeable.

    Feature Updates

    Fitted Mesh Rendering

    The Fitted Mesh support is perhaps the most visible update in terms of new features. I only carried out a quick series of tests, but found the FM demos I had from back when testing the SL Fitted Mesh viewer (I’m ashamed to say I’ve still not actually started using any mesh clothing myself…) worked just fine when rendered by Lumiya.

    Fitted Mesh on Lumiya: renders perfectly
    Fitted Mesh on Lumiya: renders perfectly

    I did experience slight issues with mesh clothing failing to render when worn, something I don’t remember occurring back when mesh support was first released. Should this happen, a quick fix seems to be hopping out of the 3D view and back again.

    Request Teleport

    Another feature update with this release is the Request Teleport option. This can be accessed by:

    • Selecting the person you wish to teleport to from your Friends list, or IM
    • Tapping the MORE option
    • Tapping Request Teleport. This opens the Request Teleport message screen where you can enter your request text (or leave blank, if you prefer). Tapping OK will close the message window and send the teleport request
    • If the request is accepted, you will receive a teleport offer, as per usual; if the request is declined, you will not receive any feedback (which is how Request Teleport is handled in the viewer and not a result of Lumiya failing to receive a notification).
    Request Teleport: now in Lumiya
    Request Teleport: now in Lumiya

    Avatar Interaction

    Lumiya 2.6.0 makes it easier to interact with nearby avatars when in 3D view by applying a long touch to the centre of an avatar. This may take a little practice, but when used, will call-up a menu allowing you to initiate an IM session with that avatar, examine them, etc.

    Using a long touch on a nearby avatar will
    Using a long touch or the Drag to Select option on a nearby avatar will allow you to ineract with them via the displayed menu bar

    If you have problems using the long touch method when selecting an avatar, don’t forget you can also use the Drag To Select option in the top left corner of the 3D view and drag that down to point to the avatar in question.

    Under-the-Hood

    The under-the-hood changes in 2.6.0 range from fixes for known crash issues through to better support for transparency in the 3D world view and new notification sounds (courtesy of Lhasa Mencur) to some really quite significant performance improvements.

    The latter include a reduced memory footprint together with much improved bandwidth usage, both of which see Lumiya operate a lot more smoothly (not that it was ever particularly clunky). Much has been done to the 3D rendering performance and management as well.Also these combined mean it should be much easier to run  Lumiya on lower-end system, and for those on high-end devices, to have more of the bells and whistles turned on. In my case, for example, these improvements make it a lot easier to run with High Quality Textures enabled by default on my Nexus 2013 HD.

    Feedback

    Lumiya has always offered tremendous value for accessing Second Life while on-the-go with a suitable Android device. Even allowing for trying to maintain compatibility with older versions of Android, Alina consistently pulls-off some impressive miracles with the client, and 2.6.0 more than demonstrates this. While the added features may seem minimal (even though mesh support represents considerable work itself), the performance improvements evident in this release are astonishing.

    Obviously, with a fairly high-end Android device running Android KitKat and a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4 Pro, 1.5 GHz / Adreno 320, 400 MHz combination, I stand to benefit the most from the improvements in rendering, but even so, on my old Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android 4.1 Jellybean and Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 / Mali-400 combination, things were still noticeably faster.

    For those who require access to OpenSim and are Android users with a decent CPU / GPU combination and a reason screen size, Lumiya stands head-and-shoulder above the rest. For those wanting mobile access to Second Life and have limited screen size, it also beats SL Go hands-down in terms of convenience of use, even if it lacks the full rendering capabilities of the latter.

    Related Links

    “Project interesting” viewer reaches release status

    Posted on by Inara Pey

    On Tuesday May 6th, the Lab announced the “Project Interesting”  viewer has finally made it to a release status with the arrival of version 3.7.7.289461 of the viewer as the de facto release version.

    Available since mid-November 2013 as a release candidate viewer, this release represents the last stage in the current work on improving interest list functionality, the code which controls how the data relating to your in-world view is handled by both the server and the viewer. This includes what is sent to the viewer, what is retained by the viewer for reuse and things like the order in which objects are rendered when you log-in to SL or teleport (so that the “interesting” objects which are closer to you or which are particularly large should render first, for example).

    To mark the viewer’s formal release, the Lab has re-issued a video by Torley Linden, originally released when the viewer first made it to release candidate status, which neatly encapsulates the key updates contained within the viewer, and how they relate to server-side changes which have already been implemented.

    Related links